On November 20, 1818 Hippolyte de Bouchard , a French
revolutionary from Buenos Aires, Argentina sailed into
Monterey bay with a forty-gun war ship. The governor Pablo
Vincente de Sola sent the women, children and livestock
into the protection of the missions San Antonio and Soledad.
After winning a short artillery duel Bouchards forces
landed on Point Pinos. Buchards men ransacked and burned
the city of Monterey then the capital of California. Buchard
left the ruins of Monterey only after filling his ship
with booty.